Limiting Rest Helps Young Concussion Patients

Doctors often recommend young patients who have suffered from a concussion take plenty of time to rest and recover, but a new randomized trial comparing approaches to concussion treatments has found that young patients who rested for a shorter period of time reported fewer symptoms than those who rested for longer.

The trial included a group of patients ages 11 to 22, some who were told to rest for 1 to 2 days after a concussion and some who were told to rest for 5 days. The patients who rested for 5 days reported more symptoms than those who rested only 1 to 2 days. Overall recovery was also slower for patients with the longer resting period.

While the study doesn’t provide definitive guidance on treating pediatric concussions, it does confirm that young patients with mild traumatic brain injuries do not typically benefit from rest periods longer than 24 to 48 hours.